Black Tom explosion

Black Tom currently redirects here. For the Marvel Comics character, see Black Tom Cassidy.

The Black Tom explosion of July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American munition supplies by German agents to prevent the materials from being used by the Allies in World War I.

Black Tom Island prior to the blast

The term Black Tom originally referred to an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island. The island received its name from a local legend of a "dark-skinned" resident named Tom. By 1880, a causeway and railway had been built connecting it to the mainland for use as a shipping depot. Sometime between 1905 and 1916, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which owned the island and causeway, expanded the island with landfill, resulting in the addition of the entire area to the limits of Jersey City. The area contained a mile-long pier that housed the depot as well as warehouses for the National Dock and Storage Company.

Black Tom was a major munitions depot for materials manufactured in the northeast. Prior to a 1915 blockade of the Central Powers by the British Royal Navy, American industries were free to sell their materials to any buyer, but by this time the Allies were the only possible customers. It was reported that on the night of the attack, two million pounds of ammunition were being stored at the depot in freight cars, including one-hundred thousand pounds of TNT on the Johnson Barge No.17, all awaiting eventual shipment to Britain and France. It was obviously a tempting target. Future mayor Frank Hague, then commissioner of public safety, reported that he had been told that the barge had been "tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar towing charge." *

Explosion

Black Tom pier.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Black Tom pier shortly after the explosion.]] After midnight, a series of small fires were found on the pier. Some guards fled, fearing an explosion; others attempted to fight the fires. Eventually they called the Jersey City Fire Department.

At 2:08 a.m. the first and biggest of the explosions took place. Shrapnel from the explosion travelled long distances, some lodging in the Statue of Liberty and some in the clocktower of the Jersey Journal building in Journal Square, over a mile away, stopping the clock at 2:12 a.m. The explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale * and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. Windows broke as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in lower Manhattan. Some window panes in Times Square were completely shattered. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken.

Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20 million ($365 million today). The damage to the Statue of Liberty was valued at $100,000 and included the skirt and the torch. The explosion is part of the reason the Statue's torch is not accessible today.

Immigrants being processed at Ellis Island also had to be evacuated to lower Manhattan. Reports vary, but as many as seven people may have been killed, including:

a Jersey City policeman ^*,
a Lehigh Valley Railroad Police Chief ^*,
a ten week old infant ^*,
a guard^*,
and the barge captain ^*.

Injuries numbered in the hundreds. Smaller explosions continued to occur for hours after the initial blast.

Aftermath

Two of the guards who had lit the smudge pots were immediately arrested. However, it soon became clear that the blast had not been an accident. It was traced to a Slovak immigrant named Michael Kristoff (probably a stolen identity), who had served in the U.S. Army, but admitted to carrying suitcases for the Germans before America entered World War I. According to him, two of the guards were German agents. It is likely that the bombing involved some of the ingenious techniques developed by a group of German agents surrounding German ambassador Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, probably using the pencil bombs developed by Captain Franz von Rintelen.

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company sought damages against Germany under the Treaty of Berlin with the German-American Mixed Claims Commission. The commission in 1939 declared that Imperial Germany had been responsible and ordered damages. The two sides finally settled on $50 million in 1953. The final payment was made in 1979.

Black Tom today

The location of Black Tom Island can still be visited today as part of Liberty State Park. The park consists of former industrial and railroad lands created by filling in the waters adjoining Black Tom to the north, making it now part of the mainland. The former Black Tom Island is the area at the end of Morris Pesin Drive in the southeastern corner of the park. A plaque marks the spot of the explosion.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Black Tom explosion

Black Tom Island prior to the blast

Explosion

Aftermath

Black Tom today

External links